Chapter 042 - Seize the Means

Anna moved slowly through the snow, she’d left Catherine behind far enough away to stay out of the range of their wraithsight. The two of them had agreed to take a good look at the defenses of the large building before initiating any form of attack. There appeared to be relatively few undead actually guarding the structure, just a couple skeletons holding what appeared to be crossbows on raised platforms at the corners. Other than them, the sole undead capable of speech remained outside only long enough to yell at a slave that was moving too slowly before returning to a building set in the very center of the structure.

It wasn’t overly big, but its features were certainly impressive. It looked like some kind of tower, only a few stories tall and so narrow she had to imagine the interior was barely bigger than the average studio apartment. When they had been at a distance she hadn’t been able to see it for what it was, just lumping it in with the rest of the oddly homogenous material of the overall structure. This close, she could see lines of blue-green light running up the sides of it within sealed channels. These channels stopped near the top where she could make out something almost invisible floating above it. Translucent to the point that if she hadn’t been looking for what the glow was leading into she wouldn’t have seen it.

An eye.

Well that looks way more dangerous than the creepy crawlies they have walking around, she thought. Better not get too close, Skele-douche knows that I can hide my presence, that might be a countermeasure. Seeing as they haven’t reacted, though, it must not have a great range.

She backed up slowly, careful not to make her movement through the snow obvious before backtracking along her original route to where she’d left Catherine. She shot one more look at the tower as the intelligent undead stepped out and started barking orders. A question burned in her mind as she arrived at the knight’s side but she set it aside for the moment to fill her in. Catherine frowned and rubbed her chin. “A Gazer Pylon, I’m surprised they still use that design, it has been a long time.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Anna said with a shrug.

Catherine raised an eyebrow at her but nodded. “Makes sense,” she smiled a little, “your instincts are good, My Lady. That pylon was put there specifically for you. It seems that Skeleton Champion has taken a great interest in you.”

Anna crossed her arms. “He’s not my type, fucking blowhard.” She spat on the ground and glared at the tower. “What else can it do?”

“To be specific, it assists nearby undead by providing them with an additional layer of visual input. It sees for them. It is also capable of using ranged attack magics, lethal siege-level magics. Not something you or I want to get hit by at our level,” Catherine said. “That said, they have a few flaws to them, one being that it can only look in one direction at a time. We could-”

Anna held up her hands. “Wait, wait, before you start strategizing, how does it work?”

Catherine tilted her head. “I apologize, I do not understand the question.”

“Well, its not a person, so how is it using magic?” she asked and jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “It looked like mana was going into it.”

Catherine crossed her arms and sighed. “It is a crafted construct, yes, the combined work of an Engraver and Architect of their culture’s traditions and magical styles.”

“So it definitely runs on mana,” Anna repeated.

“Yes, all such devices use mana.”

Anna grinned, “Then what happens if I craft up a few plates that are just Mana Output glyphs and slap them onto the side?”

The knight’s eyebrows furrowed and then widened, she looked at Anna like she was a crazy person for a moment before barking out a small laugh. “You will need a distraction, My Lady.”

“Good thing I have a loyal ex-paladin ready to fight for me,” Anna said.

Catherine’s green eyes glowed with those murderous flickers of red as she grinned. “Quite so, my Lady, quite so.”

–

They made their way back to the precinct in record time, hurrying through the doors and taking a moment to catch their breath. Anna looked up at her knight, “I will need some time to get the plates ready, it shouldn’t be hard but I have no idea how many I’ll need to slap on before it shuts the thing down. Based on what understanding I have of engraving, it’s possible they won’t even be enough to do that.”

“As long as it cannot function properly, that will be sufficient. If you are close enough to do that, you are close enough to get inside and do even more harm. The important thing is that you weaken it so I can join you,” Catherine said. “This is a fight we will have to take on together.”

Anna nodded and looked to the doors, a flicker of worry rising in her gut that she quickly stomped down on. She glanced at Catherine who gave her an expectant look. Anna’s lip twitched. She’s not going to offer to do it, she wants me to order her to do it. She ran her fingers  up and through her hair and exhaled. “Catherine.”

“Yes my Lady?”

“They will come before I am done. Will you hold the gates for me?”

The Knight brought her fist to her chest and bowed. “With all of my strength.”

Anna stared at the nape of the woman’s neck for a moment. Her blood stirred again, the heat in her veins giving her a rush of certainty that she hadn’t felt before. It was different from the unruly lion it had been since she’d first experienced her heritage’s strange nature. Instead it felt more composed if a bit eager to spill blood. She corrected her thoughts, I’m the one who wants to spill blood. This is my heritage, after all, my nature. Maybe Hale was right about me. She restrained a ruthless smile, That’s bad news for her, isn’t it?

She nodded and turned away, opening her mouth to speak and stopping herself. The words that almost tumbled out made her stomach churn just a little. Old man, you left an impression, you jerk. “Do Well?” Really? Me? Fuck that. She growled and marched through the doors of the lobby. She didn’t need to say anything at all, the order was given, that's how it should be. I won’t waste either of our time with platitudes. I have work to do, and the longer I take the longer she fights alone.

She hurried down the stairs and stripped her gear off into her inventory, throwing herself into her seat and grabbing the first plate. She had dozens of the steel ones left. Just a Mana Output Glyph, right? She thought and grabbed a handful. Then a handful more and got to work.

It took her four hours to complete twelve of the tokens. She could have done it in a shorter time but she wanted the glyphs to be large, precise, and uniform. She had to channel mana into the process of engraving as well, which ticked up her mana tolerance. Short breaks to cool down here and there allowed her to keep it as low as possible. She wanted to be close enough to zero that by the time they walked back over she was ready and raring to go. In the end, she was quite pleased with her handiwork.

Rudimentary Mana Exhaust Plate (Mortal-Common) x12
This metal token has been engraved with a simple glyph mechanism that draws mana from a system and expels it into the surrounding environment at a constant rate. Given the quality of the material used and the high-throughput engraving, this enchantment will degrade quickly after being applied.

She smirked. Works for me, she thought and hopped to her feet, throwing her gear back on and checking her inventory. She didn’t have any healing items but that was nothing new. She did have a few bone-seizing arrows left but she wanted to save those for a special target. She wasn’t sure what level the intelligent undead was, though, so she prepared herself to pull at least two out just in case. Satisfied, she hurried back up the stairs. Better not leave Catherine hanging any longer.

She was in the lobby in a matter of seconds and found Catherine sitting in a chair staring out of the glass. She had a few cuts and scrapes on her face but she looked otherwise in one piece. More importantly, though, she had her eyes closed and was glowing faintly with the radiance of essence combined with mana. Anna crossed her arms and waited for the Knight to finish refining before she spoke. “Did you level up?”

“Level four,” Catherine said.

Anna raised an eyebrow. “There must have been a lot of them. How’s your resources?”

“Fine,” Catherine said evenly. “I get a small stat bonus when the person I recognize as my liege gives me orders. It is my class’ first ability.”

Catherine had yet to actually bring up her class in conversation. Anna bit onto the opportunity. “What class?”

“Squire, my Lady,” Catherine said and rose to her feet. “It may sound humble, but I have personally trained many who chose it. I know the abilities it possesses and know what classes it leads into. It is the optimal pick for myself. There were many times in my past when I regretted not choosing it as a girl.”

Anna nodded with approval. “Using your knowledge to stack your build. I can respect that.”

Catherine made a face, “Build?” she mouthed the word and then nodded. “Build. That is an appropriate word. Interesting,” she turned to Anna. “Did you finish them?”

Anna held up the stack of plates and grinned. “Let’s go seize the means of production.” Catherine made another face but this time just gave her an uncomprehending blink of her eyes. Anna groaned and shook her head. “If you were from my culture, you would have thought that was cool.” She grumbled and marched towards the door.

Catherine followed her at a quick step, “Permission to speak freely?”

Anna pressed her lips together, knowing she’ll regret answering, but did anyway. “Sure.”

“I do not think I would have found that line ‘cool’ my Lady,” she said bluntly.

Anna rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go.”

The moon was high in the sky by the time they were half-way to their target. They had walked through a full-on blizzard at one point, almost having to stop to hunker down as the storm passed over them and buried everything in its path. Fortunately, they could handle the cold. Anna kept shooting Catherine glances as they walked, the question she had set aside earlier finally rearing itself back up in her mind as she thought about what they were about to get themselves into.

“You have a question?” Catherine asked after the wind died down a little.

“Yeah, actually,” Anna said. “You said that this thing is a garden where mindless skeletons are grown, right?”

Catherine’s expression grew a little tired and it looked like she was bracing herself. “...yes?”

“Where do intelligent undead come from?” Anna asked.

The knight looked her dead in the eyes. “Are you not a little old to not understand how procreation works?”

Anna stared at her. “They’re dead,” Anna said flatly.

“They are undead, my Lady. There is a difference. Most higher-order undead procreate the same any other creature does. There are some exceptions of course. Intelligent Skeletons, though, are part of the lowest caste of their society and they become that way by choice. They were once living,”  Catherine explained briefly as they stomped through the snow. “If you encounter an undead that is not affiliated with the Great Necropolis, please be careful with those kinds of questions. They are offensive.”

Anna gave the woman a flat look. “I thought you hated undead.”

“I purged mindless undead created from the bodies of people who did not consent to the transformation,” Catherine said sharply. “And only when I was called to. I dealt more with fourth circle practitioners in my experience.”

Fourth Circle, that’s… outsider magic. Demons and shit, got it. “Still, are you saying there are nice undead out there? Didn’t that god of light dude have a problem with them?”

“Revulsion for the undead is dogma for the Church of Memna, not Lumar,” Catherine said as they crested another hill. “Memna is the Goddess of the Dead. Lumar is a god of Justice. Where I come from, society had accepted many forms of intelligent undead who had learned to coexist with the living,” she shrugged. “I served with several.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “You really didn’t have a hard time with that?”

“Ahar Pal’adiin,” Catherine said.

“Huh? Paladin, what?”

“It is an orcish phrase,” Catherine explained. “Pal’adiin roughly translates to ‘he who does good works with his hands’ or something to that effect, my Orcish is rusty. Usually it just means ‘carpenter’. Ahar means ‘I become’.”

Anna frowned. “What does it mean in this context?”

“I am what I do,” Catherine said, “Not the other way around. It is one of Lumar’s core tenants and it is how the Paladins got their name.”

“So it doesn’t matter what you are as long as you’re a decent person?” Anna asked.

“Basically, yes,” Catherine nodded. “Do you have such faiths among your people?”

Anna shrugged. “Eh, most people I knew were preach without practicing types. It doesn’t help that as far as I knew until just recently, gods weren’t a thing. My mother was convinced that most religions were for money laundering or something, she went on a rant once about it and never talked about it again.”

“Your culture deeply concerns me,” Catherine said flatly before coming to a stop. She crouched down and Anna joined her. Both of them peered into the distance and spotted something glowing amidst a snowstorm passing just up ahead. “The Gaze Pylon is active.”

“How much you wanna bet they turn it on for a while after sending a troupe out and not hearing back?” Anna said, glancing her way. “Anything that uses mana experiences wear and tear and this environment isn’t exactly great.”

Catherine nodded. “Yes, they are likely concerned about the next shuffle. If they wear out the tower, get shuffled, and end up somewhere unfriendly, they will be in danger. Covering themselves while they have fewer soldiers is the wise decision.”

“Then all you need to do is make a scene, right?” Anna asked.

“And not get turned into a puddle of necrotic ooze by the pylon,” Catherine said with a shrug. “Not exactly how I want to die again.”

“Then don’t get hit,” Anna said and got to her feet, winding down the volume on her presence to mute it. “The longer we wait, the more time they have to restock.” She pulled her club out of her inventory and drew her helmet down over her face before setting her jaw tight. “We strike now.”